With April designated as Earth Month across the country, Georgia Power has released a new public service announcement highlighting the importance and impact volunteers have on protecting and preserving Georgia's more than 70,000 miles of streams and rivers. The PSA, which is being distributed by the Georgia Association of Broadcasters, encourages Georgians to visit www.georgiapower.com/river to find a river to renew near them and was produced in English and Spanish.  

"Our employees, and customers, are always out in force volunteering to clean and green during Earth Month," said Mark Berry, vice president of Environmental Affairs for Georgia Power. "River cleanups are among our most popular volunteer events because everyone appreciates the importance of water as a natural resource and the need to ensure that our waterways are maintained for future generations."

In addition to Earth Month events, Georgia Power sponsors and participates in river and lake cleanups around the state throughout the year. These events are hosted and sponsored by Georgia Power through Southern Company's Renew Our Rivers initiative. The company is also a corporate sponsor of Rivers Alive, a volunteer waterway cleanup initiative targeting streams, rivers, lakes, beaches and wetlands across Georgia. Since 2003, Georgia Power employees and other volunteers statewide have removed more than 2 million pounds of trash through the program.  

Georgia Power is committed to not only keeping the state's waterways clean, but also finding new technologies to reduce, conserve and improve the quality of water returned to the environment from power plants. Through a partnership with other utilities and the Electric Power Research Institute, the company continues to conduct innovative research projects at its Water Research Center at Plant Bowen near Cartersville, Georgia. Research is focused on wastewater treatment to conserve and reuse water more efficiently.